Principles of Composition in Photography

by Andreas Feininger

Book by Feininger, Andreas

Genres: Photography

136 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1972

Reviews

[Mauro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author states that effective photography need both technique and art and this is completely acceptable, but then makes a distinction between art and technique that is too sharp in my opinion: technique is not only about focusing and exposing and art about composition, I think that there are both technical and artistic aspects in all these components.
The author tries to describe the "purpose of composition", making also a parallel with other visual arts but I don't see a clear explanation here; maybe this part could have been avoided.
The author demonstrates with effective examples that even the few acceptable rules of composition are nothing but suggestions that the photographer should consider as a check-list and then be free either to follow or to disregard them. He is so convincing that you might decide not to continue reading the book: why going on if nothing that will be found in it guarantees a good result? The author eventually says that the nature of composition is organization and this concept really opens your mind.
The explanation of differences between eye and camera in seeing things is illuminating about the need of organization.
In introducing the composition, the author reminds us that when composing, a photographer must use a "total subject approach" and give simultaneous consideration to all the different aspects of his future picture.
The book is plenty of illustrated examples that are very clear and inspiring; even if I consider the explanation of the different components of composition a bit confusing because of the way the content is organized, there are really many interesting and useful consideration.
As maybe any of the books about composition, this is something you should take a look every now and then and experiment.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't quite get through this one. As being somewhat new to photography I was interested in reading a little about composition and having seen this on the shelf near another book, loaned it on a whim. While I can appreciate the author for maintaining a very free stance on composition rather then taking the side of very staunch, restrictive and academic principals, the writing itself can be very erratic. Near the beginning the author begins to rebuke some old rules/beliefs seeded into the study of photography. Unfortunately she doesn't precede this with a chapter describing said old rules/beliefs, which right from the get go leaves you with the option of either having prior knowledge of these things or doing as she says, which is to skip further into the book and then return.
While this is not necessarily wrong, it breaks the flow of the book as a whole.